"There is no such crime as a crime of thought: there are only crimes of action." Clarence Darrow, 1917.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

That Marathon Massacre - Hey kids! Can you say "Bomb in black backpack in Boston"

Another "massacre" in Boston. There's a hubbub in the street outside, I hear the bells tolling... I dash into the TV room and turn on the box... adjust the rabbit ears just a bit to the right. Ah yes, there it is. That's nasty!

DAILY NEWS - "MASSACRE". Tabloid photo montage.
Much gorier than the broadsheet published by Paul Revere.

Modern journalism. Ah, yes. It's all about feeding the fetishes, telling the masses how to feel and think, and maintaining "Freedom" and the political status quo - that poisonous but perfected two-party system they call "De-moc-ra-cy".

And so to parody the reportage of that other "Boston massacre"... you know, the one in 1770 that played out five years before those same propagandists kick-started the American Revolution:

"The unhappy Sufferers were Martin Richard, Krystie Campbell and Lingzi Lu Killed. 173 were wounded. Some of them mortally." Engrav'd Printed and Sold by Paul Revere, BOSTON

A "PRESSURE COOKER" bomb? Damn, this terrorist understands metaphor. He's a maniac with a wit. A pressure cooker. That defines the state of American politics at the moment. Half of the country is gloating and the other half seething. Hatreds generated by political partisanship are driving Americans crazy. They didn't wait to learn if the latest heinous crime is of foreign or domestic manufacture. Fists came out of pockets and fingers pointed in all directions. I think they're going to pop.

Don't believe me? Look at this little travesty David Sirota posted on SALON this morning:

SOFT TARGET?

I almost choked on my morning toast yesterday, when I heard the Boston Police Commissioner describe the Marathon as a "Soft Target". What a sick joke! Watch the blast video for yourself and see how many armed policemen were patrolling the corridor where the two bombs were planted and detonated near the finish line. There were even techies on scene wearing "HAZMAT" vests. They pop into frame within minutes. In fact Boston, like all American cities post - 9/11, is heavily militarized and the halcyon days of concertina wire, baton charges and handcuffs are over. The supercops of today and tomorrow will not be taking many prisoners. Here, Blog space being limited, are just a few samples of what the photo-journalists saw in Boston yesterday:

Boston Fire Department "Medics"

Two Boston Police SWAT armoured vehicles

This one's a pip. FBI infantry.

INVESTIGATION TECHNIQUE?

We know that the FBI profilers will get their "man". You can't scratch your balls in Boston without some 7/11 CCTV lens recording your indiscretion. But this morning's news tells us that the Yanks learned some of their best moves from the...Gulp!.... Canadians:

Sure. Rat us out as collaborators in the great Orwellian Project known as "HOPE" and "CHANGE".

Call me a sentimental fool but I preferred America when Sheriff Andy Mayberry was still on the television set and when the FBI agents wore tasteful suits with nice shoes. Now they don't attend a crime scene, they deploy to suppress and neutralize. It's getting really crazy down there in those dis-United States! Some corner druggist needs to tell the American President that strychnine is no antidote to arsenic. THE PRESIDENT IS AUTHORIZED...

UPDATE April 18- "SOFT TARGET" in Boston? Bull.

Here is a bulletin on Pressure Cookers as a bomb component, making the rounds today on the Internet. The document indicates that pressure cookers were put on the watch lists at least two years ago, and which means that all models, foreign and domestic are taggant indexed. Of course the bad guys probably picked up used items at their neighborhood Good Will store.

The F.B.I. just released photos of their pick of two faces they like for the Boston bombing. Not a lone "nut" after all. Two nuts, yes, but not very damning photos. You can't tell yet if these guys are Caucasian, Light skinned Blacks, Latinos, Arabic, or just sun tanned. And finally a teensy crumb of truth... a ranking police official, in interview on a CNN panel, admitted that police presence at the Boston Marathon was so heavy on the day of the bombing that the bombers were probably prevented from placing the devices where they preferred. So much for the Boston Commissioners burble about a "SOFT TARGET".